wxboy:Press conference guy says the largest object on the sat images is estimated at 24 m in size, so I'd have to imagine that shouldn't be nearly as hard to spot from the air as, say, a seat cushion or airplane door.

What other kinds of things could be 24 m large and floating in the ocean (aside from a boat)?

It took a bit of math to figure it out, but based on the Wikipedia entry for Boeing 777s; the plane's wing would be 29m long. So if it is part of the plane, it could be a majority of 1 wing or part of the fuselage.

KIA: Lenny_da_Hog: You'd have to be pretty goddamned callous to not care about something that happened on the other side of the planet to people you don't know, especially when it doesn't affect you in any way whatsoever.

Yup. I mean, it's not like 250,000 people were killed and twice that made homeless by a tsunami or anything.

Well, it doesn't affect me in any way whatsoever, but it's an interesting mystery, hence the reason for the daily threads.

As for Memeslave, why bother to post about a story that you don't care about?

If you were a pilot fighting a fire in your 777, and had the time to reprogram the FMS, why wouldn't you tell it to autoland at the nearest autoland airport? (What nearby airports that night were autoland?)

There is a lot of floating debris out there in the ocean. It is a dumping ground. So don't get your hopes up that any particular piece of debris is the flight. Chances are some debris will wash ashore in Western Australia in a few months or years and that will confirm that it went into the water somewhere between Australia and South Africa.

wxboy:Press conference guy says the largest object on the sat images is estimated at 24 m in size, so I'd have to imagine that shouldn't be nearly as hard to spot from the air as, say, a seat cushion or airplane door.

What other kinds of things could be 24 m large and floating in the ocean (aside from a boat)?

I hope the plane didn't hit a whale when it crashed into the ocean. Because that would be sad. Whales are magnificent, intelligent creatures, but still, they can't be expected to get out of the way when a Boeing 777 plunges out of the sky. It would happen too fast.

Ivo Shandor:wxboy: What other kinds of things could be 24 m large and floating in the ocean (aside from a boat)?

[i.imgur.com image 640x360]/although most of the rubber ducks you'll find in the open ocean are considerably smaller

Cargo containers. smaller debris pushed together when the picture was taken so it looks like a larger object, tsunami debris from 2011 or 2004, it could be anything. Static pictures show a particular moment and the way the sunlight falls, the position of the debris together, and aquatic life or oil can all create the illusion of size and complexity.Tons and tons of material goes into the water and if it gets trapped in currents it can remain indefinitely so we don't know what is there until someone gets a good view. Remember the Chinese had a good image showing something and it disappeared by the time anyone searched there.

* It's identified as 75% likely being an airplane wing tomorrow* A ship arrives on site the next day....few hours of tension* they find out it's a plane wing from a different airplane* SEARCH BACK ON!!!!!